Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and former executive director of Code for America. Pahlka founded Code for America, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that aims to make government for all people.[5] According to the Washington Post it "is the technology world’s equivalent of the Peace Corps or Teach for America… [offering] an alternative to the old, broken path of government IT."[6] In her 2012 TED Talk, Pahlka noted that we will not be able to reinvent government unless we also reinvent citizenship, and asked "Are we just going to be a crowd of voices, or are we going to be a crowd of hands?" She served as the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2013–2014, where she founded the United States Digital Service. She received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and was named by Wired as one of the 25 people who has most shaped the past 25 years. She serves on the Defense Innovation Board and the board of the Tech Talent Project.